THE PRINCE AMONG MEN. To 18 February.
London
THE PRINCE AMONG MEN
by Eric Henry Sanders
Union Theatre 204 Union Street SE1 To 18 February 2006
Tue-Sat 7.30pm
Runs 1hr 50min One interval
TICKETS:020 7261 9876
www.uniontheatre.org
Review: Timothy Ramsden 11 February
An energetic, if one-track, parable with a production and 3 central performances keeping the show on the rails.
Union director Sasha Regan has set New Yorker Eric Henry Sanders’ party political parable in an English public school. Why not? If Brecht could image Hitler’s rise through Chicago gangsters, there’s no reason not to put some distance between the neo-conning of America and its dramatic play-out. The polite tones, with sneers and bullying lying so close underneath, fit the English public school setting well.
There are strained moments in this story of a head boy’s election, including the use of a candidate’s brother as election scrutineer. Yet, take the 2000 Presidential Election as a 1999 movie-pitch and wouldn’t it have been cast aside as improbable?
There may be parallels sharpened by the original American High School setting. But the play here, something of a US parallel to Brecht’s Hitler parable Arturo Ui, both mocks its political targets and analyses processes. It comes over as the reflective side of America asking itself how such a thing could happen.
Less searching than John Sayles’ admirable film Silver City, the tightness of his school setting allows Sanders to expose the outrageous simplicities which bring dumb-boy Bozo to candidature and success in the election. Vapid populist rubbish, dirty tricks, bribery and threats contrast supine liberalism and failure of nerve in face of the new politics. Limited cast-size theatre explores voter reaction less well, throwing interest onto the manipulators themselves.
Regan’s cast show this with comedy-heightened clarity. Jonathan Baker’s Bozo has a public charm which easily sidesteps into charmless bullying in a performance veering between comic ineptness and intimidating insistence. Dull-witted confusion soon learns its escape route is through irrelevance, posturing or smears. Warren Rusher makes his fixer Dickie a relentlessly sour-faced, brutally unreasoning figure. His chief supporter compromised by scandal, liberal rival Woody is fatally irresolute, down-gearing to Bozo-style clothing and dithering with rationality. Giles Faulkner’s eyes go tired, energy dissipates from his face against the unexpected tactics.
Apart from his title (alluding to Machiavelli’s 16th century treatise on political skulduggery The Prince) no-one could accuse Sanders of over-subtlety. But his play’s a ride worth taking for anyone who enjoys the political view.
Professor Renfield: Anthony Wise
Bozo: Jonathan Baker
Dickie: Warren Rusher
Woody: Giles Faulkner
Will: Robin Chalk
Nit: Hamish Stansfeld
Cal/Jez: Richard Cross
Director: Sasha Regan
Designer/Costume: Agnes Hasar
Lighting/Assistant director: Steve Miller
2006-02-12 13:19:29